Wasn’t she supposed to meet her boyfriend? What happened in the meantime? Concealing the fact he had stopped by the pub, Tae-joon asked.
“Weren’t you supposed to have an appointment? Why are you alone?”
“Yeah, why am I alone?”
So-eun responded blankly before suddenly dropping her head, as if confessing something embarrassing.
“Actually, I know why I’m alone.”
“……”
“I’ve been abandoned everywhere, that’s why I’m alone.”
Feeling a sting of guilt for making her get out midway earlier, Tae-joon awkwardly sat next to So-eun and offered an apology.
“I’m sorry for asking you to get out earlier. I was in a hurry and couldn’t pay attention.”
“I know. Even being driven that far by the director is something I’m extremely grateful for. I saved money too.”
So-eun waved her hand as if to say that wasn’t the issue.
“I’m not upset with you, Director. The eel rice bowl was so delicious.”
Intoxicated So-eun spilled everything without being asked. She spoke happily, relishing the memory.
“It was the most delicious eel rice bowl of my life.”
“Do you want me to buy it again?”
“No, now I’ll buy it myself. With my own money.”
“……”
“I even took a picture. So I can buy it again.”
So-eun slowly fumbled in her bag for her phone to show him the picture of the eel rice bowl.
“Normally, eel rice bowls come with half an eel, right? But this one had a whole eel.”
“……”
“The best part of an eel rice bowl is this rice. You take a big scoop with the egg omelet and eel… You wouldn’t believe how delicious it is. Oh, you know. You gave it to me…”
It was funny to see her so relaxed in front of her boss, her guard completely down. On the other hand, she seemed somewhat anxious, which caught Tae-joon’s attention. He repeatedly lifted his arm whenever So-eun’s head tilted to one side.
“Do you usually not drink well?”
“No, I really like it.”
“……”
“It’s just been a really long time… That’s why…”
As she confessed it had been a long time, So-eun’s voice diminished again.
Her smile was there, but it wasn’t joyful. It looked pitiful and sorrowful.
The once sparkling girl seemed to have lost her light.
Twenty years is such a time. It’s supposed to be okay, but the dulled child somehow didn’t sit right with him.
“Where did your boyfriend go? Why are you like this alone?”
“No.”
“……”
“It’s okay now. I wanted to tell you about this.”
“About what?”
“The eel rice bowl.”
“……”
“Honestly, I was really scared today, you know? When you said you’d drive me to Seoul, I thought I was done for. But then I remembered something.”
“What?”
“The eel rice bowl.”
“……”
“A person who gives eel rice bowls can’t be bad. That’s why I had the courage to get in the car.”
So-eun’s reasoning was so absurd that Tae-joon immediately objected.
“You don’t know life. Even a person who gives eel rice bowls can be bad.”
At Tae-joon’s retort, So-eun laughed weakly.
“I know. I do know. But…”
“……”
“I just want to believe.”
That he’s not a bad person.
Sigh.
A hot breath, like tears vaporized, escaped her lips.
That all the love I’ve received is real. That it’s not conditional.
I just wanted to keep believing that. I wanted to be fooled forever. I didn’t want to know the truth.
Whose fault is it? It was my decision.
I gave because he was precious to me.
I willingly gave a part of myself because it seemed happier to give than not to.
After giving so willingly, how ugly is it to whine about love changing?
But still, I…
“Some people take eel rice bowls for granted, right?”
I wanted to have eel rice bowls without conditions.
“Director, eel rice bowls must be common for you, right?”
For me, that eel rice bowl is a luxury meal that I can only have if I take care of my mother’s weekend meals.
It wasn’t my intention to pick a fight with the Director, but I was envious of people who naturally have what I don’t.
“I wish I could just receive without giving.”
I want to be loved.
I just want to be loved. That’s all.
Sighs that sounded like stories, and stories that felt like sighs, merged into the night air.
Every time So-eun realized her shoulders were slumping, she straightened her back. That upright posture looked somewhat precarious to Tae-joon, as if she might crumble with a single touch, yet she was determinedly holding on.
Her white hand, clutching her bag, fidgeted, causing Tae-joon to feel a pinch somewhere in his chest.
“I want to whine too.”
She whined about wanting to whine.
Tae-joon had always been harsh to women who clung to him, whining.
He couldn’t be any more lenient with Han So-eun.
A gloomy face is uninteresting.
He wasn’t the type to sit on the street and listen to the complaints of a drunken woman.
Tae-joon thought it was time to get up.
“I want to be comforted without any merit for whining.”
But he soon found himself settling back into his seat.
“I want cuddles and pampering too. I want to be a princess from a wealthy family.”
Her continuous complaints sounded like the sad chirping of a baby bird seeking its mother.
Her voice was low, but there was a desperation to it that made Tae-joon’s chest feel increasingly sore.
“I want to be loved recklessly.”
It was definitely her words, yet it felt as though they had leapt out of his own heart.
“I want to be loved…”
Like a bland snack with an oddly addictive taste, it wasn’t particularly interesting, but he found himself just watching quietly.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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